Five Highlights of the Imperial War Museum Collection

Discover these powerful and moving images from the First and Second World War

The Imperial War Museum in south central London contains a collection of works painted during or inspired by the harrowing events of the First and Second World Wars and present-day conflicts. Here are five images which help us understand the human stories behind the bloodshed.

Gassed- John Singer Sargent
Sargent’s huge painting of an infantry blinded by a mustard gas attack was based on his own experiences of the battlefield when visiting France in 1818. While the picture shows the devastating effects of the mustard gas — we see dozens of men piled on top of one another writhing on the ground in agony — it also showcases the camaraderie of the British soldiers who hold up and guide each other towards the medical tents.

Gassed John Singer Sargent 1919 (From the collection of the Imperial War Museum)

In the background off-duty troops play a football match which serves both as a symbol of defiance in the face of adversity and a chilling reminder that these mustard gas attacks were nothing out of the ordinary.

Detail from Gassed John Singer Sargent 1919 (From the collection of the Imperial War Museum)

Josef Stalin, President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill at Tehran, 1943
A photograph of three men who collectively held the fate of the entire world in their hands. This famous photograph was taken at the Tehran conference of 1943 where the Allied leaders met to discuss war tactics, but you wouldn’t be able to guess the gravity of the situation by looking at this photo. The so-called Big Three all seem laid back and pensive here; in fact Churchill and Stalin both seem to be half-smiling for the camera. What makes this photo so fascinating is that it gives a glimpse at the individuals behind the formidable public figures, and does not disguise the fact they were at this point elderly, and in the case of Roosevelt, ailing men.

Josef Stalin, President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill at Tehran 1943 (From the collection of the Imperial War Museum)

We Are Making A New World- Paul Nash
The title of this piece by British Surrealist artist Paul Nash stands at odds with the barren, almost post-apocalyptic landscape that it depicts. Nash’s work is a powerful, sardonic indictment against those who claimed that the Great War would bring stability to Europe. Here as the sun rises, it doesn’t bring promise of a new, brighter future but rather shines on a sterile wasteland, populated with deformed trees which recall the disfigured limbs of the victims and grotesque mounds which hint at bodies buried beneath.

We are Making a New World Paul Nash 1918 (From the collection of the Imperial War Museum)

Paths of Glory- C.R.W Nevinson
Christopher R.W Nevinson's painting of two dead British soldiers face down in the mud of the trenches was perceived as a threat to national morale and officially censored for its candid and dispiriting account of the human cost of conflict. As with Nash’s painting, the title accentuates the absurdity of pro-war rhetoric, presenting an indelible image that could not be more devoid of glory. The way in which Nevinson painted the corpses so that the color of their uniforms blends in with the mud also might refer to how thousands of soldiers died in total anonymity.

Paths of Glory C.R.W Nevinson 1917 (From the collection of the Imperial War Museum)

A House Collapsing on Two Firemen, Shoe Lane, London, EC4- Leonard Rosoman
Leonard Rosoman witnessed the aftermath of the bombing of Shoe Lane in the City of London as a fireman on the scene. This intensely dramatic painting places the viewer in the thick of the carnage caused by the explosion; the flying debris, smoke and flashes of bright lights indicate that the bomb has just detonated seconds earlier. We look on helplessly as a collapsing wall threatens to crush the courageous firefighters. But in Rosoman's painting they remain frozen in time as living heroes.